Blue Mountain, Miss. – The Columbia College baseball team was back in action over the last few days when they traveled to Blue Mountain, Mississippi, to play two games against Blue Mountain (Miss.) College and two games against Brescia (Ky.) University. The Cougars went 3-1 on the week as they split the series with Blue Mountain College and swept Brescia University to improve to 5-1 on the season.
In the first game against Blue Mountain College on Thursday, the Cougars had a tough time getting anything going offensively as they were limited to just three hits in the 4-0 loss. The Toppers were able to rally for two runs in the bottom of the first inning and two runs in the bottom of the third inning to hand Columbia their first loss of the season. Blue Mountain College had seven hits in the ballgame.
Jeremy Rettig (0-1) got the start in the first game as he allowed five hits and four earned runs while striking out two batters in 2.0 innings on the mound. Derek Sallee (0-0) came in to relieve Rettig in the third inning and allowed just two hits in the final 4.0 innings of the game. Offensively, Andrew Warner, Alex Del Rio and Blade McKee led the way for Columbia as all three went 1-3 in the ballgame.
In the second game against Brescia University on Thursday, the Cougars were able to put together five hits in a 4-2 victory. Columbia College got the scoring going in the game as they rallied for four runs in the top of the third inning to take a 4-0 lead in the ballgame. The Bearcats battled back and answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third but that was as close as they would get as the Cougars closed them out down the stretch to improve to 1-1 on the day.
Chris Wall (0-0) was on the mound to start this one as he allowed just one hit and one earned run in 2.0 innings of work. J.W. McGraw (1-0) came in to relieve Wall in the third inning and allowed just three hits and no earned runs in the final 5.0 innings of the game. Blade McKee led the way at the plate for the Cougars as he went 3-4 with a runs scored and an RBI.
In the third game against Brescia University on Friday, the Cougars were able to put together 15 hits in an 11-1 victory. Columbia College got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first as Josh Miller hit a double to start the inning and then came around to score to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. The Bearcats answered with a run of their own in the top of the second but four runs in the fourth, four runs in the fifth, and two final runs in the sixth propelled Columbia to their second straight win over Brescia.
Cody Ebert (2-0) got the start in this one as he allowed just three hits and one earned run while striking out seven in 6.0 innings on the mound. Chris Wall (0-0) and Lane Threkhold (0-0) came in to relieve Ebert as the two combined for one strikeout and no hits in the final inning of the game. Tanner Allen led the way at the plate for Columbia as he went 2-3 with a homerun, three runs scored, and two RBI's. In addition, Blade McKee went 3-3 with an RBI, Alex Del Rio went 2-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Reed Sprinkle went 2-3 with three RBI's to round out the top performers for the Cougars.
In their final game on Friday night, Columbia College was able to put together nine hits to defeat Blue Mountain College by a final score of 5-2. Neither side was able to get anything going through the first five innings of the game but the Toppers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth. However, the Cougars battled back and rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh inning and never looked back as they closed out the Toppers down the stretch to improve to 3-1 on the week.
Dakota Stone (0-0) got the start in this one as he allowed just three hits while striking out nine batters in 5.0 scoreless innings on the mound. Jordan Copeland (0-0) and Craig Smith (1-0) came in to relieve Stone as the two combined to allow two hits and two earned runs while striking out two batters in the final two innings of the game. Offensively, the team was led by Andrew Warner who went 2-2 with an RBI and a runs scored, Alex Del Rio who had two RBI's, and Justin Randle who went 2-4 with a run scored.
The baseball team is back in action on Friday, February 16th when they travel to Joplin, Missouri, to take on MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) University. The game is set to start at 5 p.m.
